The present invention is directed to a product collator, and more specifically, to a product collator for unscrambling and conveying cylindrical products, such as frankfurters or cigars, from a hopper bin input to a transfer belt, where gaps between unscrambled products loaded onto the transfer belt and where recirculation of the products through the collator are minimized.
Conventional collator systems, such as the Drake Model 9200 loader and the collator shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,150, include an endless flighted conveyor having a plurality of flights extending in a transverse direction (perpendicular to the direction of travel), where each of the flights are sized to receive a plurality of food products such as frankfurters. The conveyor is fed multiple scrambled food products from a source, such as a hopper. The continuous motion of the conveyor conveys the frankfurters from the bottom of the pile of scrambled frankfurters upwardly toward a rake where any frankfurters lying above the flights are knocked downwardly again toward the hopper. The collator of the ""150 patent, rather than using rakes, conveys the food products upward at an extreme angle to cause the food products not securely settled within the flights to fall out from the flights, back to the section of the conveyor where the scrambled food products are fed.
Thereafter, the frankfurters received within the flights are conveyed to the bottom of the conveyor and are held within the flights by a rear cage extending adjacent to the conveyor as it travels downwards and rearwards towards the hopper again. The frankfurters within the flights are conveyed to a belt that is positioned at the very bottom of the unscrambling conveyor, where the belt travels in a direction perpendicular to the travel of the unscrambling conveyor. This belt transports the frankfurters positioned within the flights to discharge side of the associated flights. Thereafter, the frankfurters are conveyed to a discharge opening in the cage positioned on the discharge side of the conveyor belt so that one or two rows of the frankfurters will fall through the discharge opening onto a transfer conveyor, which transports the unscrambled frankfurters in an ordered fashion to a loading head for packaging.
A disadvantage with this conventional collator is that it is possible for an undesirable amount of xe2x80x9crecirculationxe2x80x9d to take place. That is, it is possible for an undesirable number of the food products to be retained on the flighted conveyor for an undesirable amount of time. For example, it is possible for a food product positioned within a flight, on the side of the conveyor opposite the discharge side, never to be transported to the discharge side of the conveyor, if new food products are continuously received within the flight between the old food product and the discharge side of the conveyor. Another disadvantage with this type of conventional collator is that it does not easily accommodate different diameters of the cylindrical products.
The present invention provides an improved product collator comprising an endless conveyor belt that includes a plurality of laterally extending flights. While the invention is specifically designed for cylindrical products, such as frankfurters, it is within the scope of the invention to collate products of other various shapes. The conveyor belt includes a first, generally upwardly and forwardly extending path and a second, generally rearwardly extending path positioned below the upwardly and forwardly extending path. The first, generally upwardly and forwardly extending path of the conveyor belt includes a first trough section for allowing at least some of the products to settle within the flights; a first upwardly inclined section, downstream from the first trough section, for causing products not securely settled within the flights to fall back to the first trough section; a second trough section, downstream from the first upwardly inclined section; and a second upwardly inclined section, downstream from the second trough section, for causing products not securely settled within the flights to fall back to the second trough section. The second trough section allows at least some of these products to settle back again within the flights. Accordingly, having the dual trough sections in this first, generally upwardly and forwardly extending path of the conveyor belt insures that a greater number of the products will settle within the flights, thereby decreasing the amount of gaps present in the transfer conveyer fed by the collator.
The collator also comprises a first transport belt running in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the conveyor belt and positioned immediately adjacent to the flights, downstream from the second upwardly inclined section (and preferably in the second, generally rearwardly extending path), for transporting the products secured within the flights to one lateral side of the conveyor belt; a discharge port, positioned immediately adjacent to the flights, on the one lateral side of the conveyor belt, and downstream from the first transport belt, for allowing products secured within the flights and transported to the one lateral side of the conveyor belt to be discharged therethrough; and a second transport belt running in the same direction as the first transport belt and positioned immediately adjacent to the flights, downstream from the discharge port and upstream from a product receiving point, for transporting the products remaining secured within the flights (after passing the discharge port) to the one lateral side of the conveyor belt before the flights arrive at the product receiving point. This second transport belt reduces recirculation of the products through the collator in that it guarantees that any new products received in the flights while passing through the product receiving point (i.e., the first trough section), will be received on the side of the remaining product(s) opposite the discharge side of the flights.
Each of the flights include a back wall extending outwardly from the conveyor belt and laterally there across, for securing products within the flights, where the back wall has at least an end portion angled towards the direction of travel of the conveyor belt. Preferably, this end portion is angled towards the direction of travel at approximately 40xc2x0 to approximately 50xc2x0; and the back wall is approximately one inch and the end portion thereof is approximately one-half inch. Such dimensions and angles for the back wall of the flight permits a wide range of cylindrical products (such as frankfurters) to be received and conveyed therein. In an alternate embodiment of the flights, the entire back wall portion is angled towards the direction of travel at, preferably, approximately 40xc2x0 to approximately 50xc2x0; and preferably extends approximately 1 inch from the conveyor belt.
It is also preferred that the first upwardly inclined section of the first, generally upwardly and forwardly extending path of the conveyor belt extends upwardly at a first angle and the second upwardly inclined section extends upwardly at a second angle that is steeper than the first angle. Preferably, this second angle is substantially vertical or even extends beyond vertical. Therefore, in combination with the dimensions and angles of the flights described above, the extreme angles of the second upwardly extending section of the conveyor belt insures that all products not securely received within the flights (i.e., products that are not seated securely within the flights or products that are overlapping other products within the flights) will fall from the flights back to the second trough section of the conveyor belt when traveling in this second upwardly inclined section. Accordingly, with such a design, rakes or other devices positioned above the conveyor belt are not required to discharge unseated product articles from the flights.
The endless conveyor belt is preferably made up of a plurality of laterally extending, link bars that are pivotally coupled together upon a corresponding plurality of transverse shafts. The links bars are arranged side-by-side and have a plurality of eyelet tabs extending therefrom, through which the transverse shafts extend. The eyelet tabs are sufficiently spaced from one another along the link bars to provide a plurality of openings in the endless conveyor belt so that effective spray cleaning can be achieved. Additionally, the diameter of the eyelet holes in the eyelet tabs are sufficiently larger than the diameter of the transverse shafts so that such spray cleaning of the endless conveyor belt will include the radial spaces between the transverse shafts and the eyelet tabs.
Therefore, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a product collator that comprises an endless conveyor belt including a plurality of laterally extending flights, the conveyor belt including a first, generally upwardly and forwardly extending path and a second, generally rearwardly extending path positioned downstream from the first upwardly and forwardly extending path; where the first path includes: (a) a first trough section for allowing at least some of the products to settle within the flights, (b) a first upwardly inclined section, downstream from the first trough section, for causing products not securely settled within the flights to fall back to the first trough section, (c) a second trough section, downstream from the first upwardly inclined section, and (d) a second upwardly inclined section, downstream from the first trough section, for causing products not securely settled within the flights to fall back to the second trough section, wherein the second trough section allows at least some of these products to settle back again within the flights.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a product collator comprising: (a) an endless conveyor belt including a plurality of laterally extending flights, where the conveyor belt includes a first, generally upwardly and forwardly extending path and a second, generally rearwardly extending path positioned below the first upwardly and forwardly extending paths, where the first path includes a point for receiving scrambled products thereon; (b) a first transport belt, positioned downstream from the receiving point, running in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the conveyor belt and positioned immediately adjacent to the flights for transporting the products secured within the flights to one lateral side of the conveyor belt; (c) a discharge port, positioned immediately adjacent to the flights, on the one lateral side of the conveyor belt, and downstream from the first transport belt, for allowing products secured within the flights and transported to the one lateral side of the conveyor belt to be transferred therethrough; and (d) a second transport belt running in the same direction as the first transport belt and positioned immediately adjacent to the flights, downstream from the discharge port and upstream from the receiving point, for transporting the products remaining secured within the flights (after passing the discharge port) to the one lateral side of the conveyor belt.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a collator apparatus for effectively and efficiently un-scrambling scrambled product articles from an input point (such as a hopper) to an output point (such as a transfer conveyor); it is a further object of the present invention that such collator apparatus be designed to minimize the amount of recirculation of the product articles through the apparatus; it is a further object of the present invention that such collator apparatus be designed to minimize the number of spaces between unscrambled product articles at the output point; and it is an object of the present invention that such collator apparatus provide for efficient and effective cleaning of the various components that contact the product articles. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following descriptions, the appended claims and the attached drawings.